This was picked up on by Kathie Sarachild, who had long been aware of women’s oppression having read Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex as a teenager (after discovering it on her mother’s bookshelf).

“I realized I could learn a lot about how to understand and describe the particular oppression of women in ways that could reach other women in the way that this had just reached me,” Sarachild told the First National Conference of Stewardesses for Women Rights in a 1973 speech. “The whole group was as moved as I was, and we decided on the spot that what we needed—in the words Anne used—was to raise our consciousness some more.” (These beginnings are related by Sarachild in “Consciousness Raising: A Radical Weapon” in Feminist Revolution by Redstockings, 1975, 1978; available from Redstockings or from TruthTellers.)

In the autumn of 1968, Sarachild wrote up A Program for Feminist Consciousness-Raising to distribute at the first national women’s liberation conference at Lake Villa near Chicago over Thanksgiving weekend. It initially received a mixed reception, but before long, even groups that had previously disparaged consciousness-raising as “therapy” or “navel-gazing” began to take it up. Consciousness-Raising swept the country, with groups in every major city and many smaller towns.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Chaos and violence continue . . . in
Philadelphia, War Hawk Hillary Clinton hopes to bring everyone on board
with her war lust, a reporter gets arrested, the people protest, and
much more.

In Philadelphia, the Democratic Party is holding its national convention
following a bitter struggle between Hillary Clinton (War Hawk and
winner) and Bernie Sanders.

The central issue is whether we should follow Bernie’s lead in
supporting Hillary’s corporate politics, or continue the political
revolution by building our movement independent of the DNC. While I
supported Bernie’s primary campaign, spoke at Bernie rallies, and initiated Movement4Bernie,
I believe we simply cannot follow him in his decision to back Hillary.
Our political revolution now risks being turned into its opposite, and
funnelled into support for the DNC’s neoliberal agenda.Backing corrupt establishment politicians is no way to defeat the
right-wing – it will only embolden them and allow the political agenda
to continue to be pushed further rightward. This failed strategy of
lesser evilism is what has brought the 99% to this point.

Some will listen to Bernie and fall in line behind Hillary. But that
instinct may hit a snag for some as a result of WikiLeaks releasing DNC
e-mails. From Saturday's snapshot:

Michael Sainato (OBESERVER) points, out, "In its recent leak of 20,000 DNC emails from January 2015 to May
2016, DNC staff discuss how to deal with Bernie Sanders’ popularity as a
challenge to Clinton’s candidacy. Instead of treating Sanders as a viable candidate for the Democratic ticket, the DNC worked against him and his campaign to ensure Clinton received the nomination." Tom Hamburger and Karen Tumulty (WASHINGTON POST) add, "One potential complication is that Sanders’s supporters are crucial to
Democratic hopes of retaining the White House in the fall. They bring to
the contest both passion and a potentially vast donor base."

Green
Party presumptive nominee Jill Stein says WikiLeaks’
explosive new release of Democratic National
Committee emails prove the Democratic Party
intentionally sabotaged Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
Stein is urging Sanders to withdraw his endorsement
of Hillary Clinton and explore collaboration with
the Green Party.

“This
latest revelation from WikiLeaks underscores how
much the media is in bed with the DNC to circle the
wagons around Hillary,” Stein told US Uncut in a
phone interview. “The corruption and underhanded
tactics and deception and conspiratorial efforts to
silence Bernie and delegitimize him — I mean,
welcome to the Green Party. This is what we’ve been
up against forever.”

These latest revelations show once again that our so-called
‘democratic’ political system is irredeemably corrupt, that big money –
not the votes nor the interests of the people – is the decisive factor.
It’s a system that cannot be reformed, but must be replaced with a new
system, a socialist system where the great wealth created by working
people is taken out of the hands of the banks, corporations and the
super-rich. That is the way, the only way, that the popular demand ‘get money out of politics’ can actually be met.

Russell Mokhiber (COUNTERPUNCH) points out that the California delegation also voiced their opinions:When Elizabeth Warren voiced her support for Hillary Clinton, the rabble began chanting — “Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs.”When Elizabeth Warren said that “Hillary will fight to hold big banks
accountable,” the rabble responded with “release the transcripts,
release the transcripts.”When Bernie said he remembered Hillary “as a great first lady who
broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to
play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care,” the
rabble, knowing full well that Hillarycare, like Obamacare, was written
by the insurance industry, started chanting — “Medicare for all,
Medicare for all.”

When Bernie said “I served with her, in the United States Senate and
know her as a fierce advocate for the rights of children,” the rabble
responded with “super predators, super predators.”

The protests as a whole have been significantly larger than those at
the Republican National Convention. While several hundred turned out in
Cleveland to oppose the nomination of Donald Trump, thousands of Sanders
supporters have come to the first two days of the Philadelphia
convention.Inside the DNC, Sanders delegates booed when Sanders told them to support Hillary Clinton, and a similar mood reigned outside.The World Socialist Web Site spoke to dozens of protesters.
The reporting team brought attention to the Socialist Equality Party’s
2016 presidential campaign and distributed hundreds of copies of Jerry
White's and Niles Niemuth’s election statement.Sanders supporters expressed a range of reactions to his endorsement
of Clinton. Some hoped it was just a ploy and that he would show his
real stance when he spoke at the convention. Others felt betrayed.Megan, who was wearing a T-Shirt that read “Stop War,” said, “I feel
that with Hillary in power we will be in perpetual warfare. [War] is a
real profiteering enterprise for her and her supporters, most of them
defense contractors, Wall Street guys, Saudi Arabia – who all like war.”

The program of global militarism at the heart of the Clinton campaign
is combined with the ferocious promotion of racial and gender politics.
The purpose of this ideological offensive is to broaden the base of
support for imperialist war to include privileged sections of the
upper-middle class, black and white, who are intent on carving out for
themselves a bigger share of the economic spoils from the impoverishment
of workers in the US and around the world.Hence the relentless promotion of identity politics, and especially
racial politics, by the media in general and, in particular, the New York Times. The Times
hardly allows a day to go by without an article, editorial or op-ed
piece declaring race to be the overriding issue in American society and
depicting a nation seething with white racism. As always, racism and
racial politics are weapons in the war of the ruling class to divide and
demobilize the working class.[. . .]There is only one political party and only one campaign that are
fighting for the political independence of the working class and the
building of an international movement against war based on a socialist
and revolutionary program: the Socialist Equality Party and the SEP
campaign of Jerry White for president and Niles Niemuth for vice president.

It had been cloudy all afternoon, and
when Jill Stein took the stage, the thunder started. “They sabotaged a
revolutionary campaign!,” she joked. Big applause. Her platform and
Bernie’s platform were a “marriage made in heaven,” she continued, and
"We are here —" The sound cut out. After a few seconds, it returned. “We
are here together!” A chant of “Jill not Hill” erupted. Soon after, the
sky opened up, and the rain came.The Green Party rally broke up quickly as people ran from the pouring
rain. A speaker had told the crowd earlier that “Mother Nature herself
has an inherent and unalienable right to exist.” And this evening,
Mother Nature herself was exercising that right. Some supporters took
refuge under the trees — “This looks like a strong branch!” — while
others made a run for the street. I ended up with a group of women who
were still in a good mood, and one of them jumped and splashed in the
puddles with her water sandals. “You’re drunk, Erica!” one of her
friends exclaimed. A spontaneous chant of just the word “Rain! Rain!
Rain!” started, and then a man’s voice yelled out: “Rain for everyone!”

Hillary Clinton was a champion of the Iraq
invasion. One million Iraqis died as did thousands of U.S. service
members. She demanded the bombing of Libya in 2011 and now Libya, like
Iraq, is in fragments. She is currently leading a militant struggle to
criminalize the BDS movement that stands in solidarity with Palestinian
people. The leading Republican neoconservative imperialist "experts" are
supporting Clinton in 2016 and raising money for her campaign. You
cannot support an imperialist war hawk and have a political revolution
at the same time.

Our campaign stands with those people in the Bernie Sanders movement
who do not agree with the idea of supporting Hillary Clinton. Even
though I am running an independent socialist campaign for president I
was hoping that Sanders would win the Democratic nomination. I urged
registered Democrats to vote for Sanders in the closed primaries in the
critical states of New York and California. I knew how much the
Democratic establishment and Wall Streets billionaire bankers were
trying to crush Bernie in their support for Clinton.Now Bernie Sanders has officially endorsed Hillary Clinton, just
weeks away from the the convention in Philadelphia. Those who have
declared themselves “Bernie or Bust” and “Never Hillary” now face
intense pressure to unite behind Clinton. It is unfortunate that Sanders
himself felt that pressure. The whole impetus and attraction of the
Sanders campaign was to fight the 1% and the status quo, of which
Clinton is the complete embodiment and preferred candidate!In his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, Bernie extolled Hillary
Clinton's virtues in addition to arguing that people must unite to stop
Trump. Yes, Trump is an odious bigot, racist and misogynist and we
should continue to organize a mass movement against him. But every four
years the "progressives" are told to prevent the greater evil by
supporting the corrupt capitalist politicians who use the Democratic
Party branding and then implement the same anti-people policies as the
Republicans once they are elected. This is precisely why one of every
two people in this country now lives in or near poverty. We need a real
political revolution against both ruling class political parties.I urge Sanders’ supporters to not only vote socialist but to get involved
with our socialist campaign, and to help build a powerful grassroots
people’s movement to fight the billionaire class before and after the
elections.The entire rigged primary process has demonstrated the utter
bankruptcy of the Democratic Party as a vehicle for real social change.

Only the people organized and fighting together can truly make
history. Millions of people, especially young people, now look to
socialism as an alternative to the capitalist system that is robbing
them of a future.

1 out of 10 #Iraqi children is displaced. That's 1.5 million children who need food, water & health care.

146 retweets107 likes

And today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in IraqBomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted seven
strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:-- Near Rutbah, a strike suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Mosul, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and
destroyed two ISIL vehicles, five ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL
command-and-control node and an ISIL supply cache.-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes destroyed six ISIL rocket rails
and an ISIL vehicle bomb factory and denied ISIL access to terrain.-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and
destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, and an ISIL
weapons cache.-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL weapons storage facility.-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck three separate ISIL media facilities.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in
counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a
strike.

As for Monday's violence, Hari Sreenivasan (PBS' THE NEWSHOUR) explained, "In Iraq, at least 14 people were killed and dozens were wounded, when a
suicide bomber rammed a checkpoint. It happened at a busy entrance to a
Shiite town some 50 miles north of Baghdad. The Sunni-dominated
Islamic State group claimed responsibility. Meanwhile, a string of
bombings inside Baghdad killed nine more people."